originally published in The Lawyers Weekly
Here’s a New Year’s resolution for lawyers: bring as many of your work systems as you can under one digital roof. That means putting matter management, calendars, contacts, time tracking, billing and other computer systems into a comprehensive practice management system.
Fifty to 70 per cent of lawyers use no electronic practice management system (PM system – a category of software that may have the most unfortunate three-letter acronym in all of technology) of any sort, according to surveys quoted by Jack Newton, president of Themis Solutions, which markets Clio, a PM system. “The costs of buying and implementing systems have typically kept lawyers away,” Newton says.
The Lawyers Weekly spoke with Newton and five other PM system vendors. They shared both shopping and implementation tips to help lawyers take the first steps in choosing and implementing the PM system that’s right for them.
Since each PM system’s story is too detailed to cram into this article, we have provided each vendor’s website. Check them out yourself. Give them a call — they’ll be happy to answer your questions.
SHOPPING TIPS
The vendors offered insights you can use to choose the right PM system for your practice.
Ease of use
Almost every vendor ranked ease of use highly, since a PM system must be a pleasure to use, or at least not something you dread starting at the beginning of a workday.
“Ease of use does not mean simplistic,” says Ron Collins, CEO of Gavel and Gown Software Inc. and Credenza Software Inc. “The key is to provide sophisticated functionality in an easy way.”
Integration with other systems
PM systems don’t replace every other software tool a lawyer uses, but it must communicate with many of them to prevent headaches like unnecessary data duplication.
Free trial period
The only sure way to determine whether a PM system offers all the features you need and effectively serves your firm is to pilot-test it in your own firm using several current matters.
“It must dovetail with your workflow,” says Larry Port, chief software architect of Rocket Matter LLC. “It should not be a square peg in a round hole.”
Training and support offerings
Does the vendor or its technology partner offer videos on its website? Regularly-scheduled webinars? Old-fashioned training courses? Is support free or fee-based? What hours of operation does the support desk offer?
Total cost of ownership
Implementing any PM system involves ongoing costs. For instance, on-premises systems must reside on a server which you must maintain after you’ve paid for installation. Also, you may need to consider upgrades, support and other costs.
Externally hosted (or SaaS—Software as a Service) systems might allow you to avoid these costs, but subscription fees will continue for as long as you use the system.
Hint: try a three- or five-year cost calculation to determine total cost of ownership for the systems you’re considering.
Offline access
If you frequently need to work in places where you aren’t in range of an Internet connection, make sure the PM system you choose lets you take your data with you.
IMPLEMENTATION TIPS
Once you choose a system, get started and keep the following advice in mind.
Get staff buy-in and train staff
PM systems attract lawyers who want to help staff collaborate more smoothly within the firm. To that end, you should help staff members understand how the system makes their jobs easier.
Train all staff early so everybody knows how the system is supposed to work when they start using it. You can do this during a free trial period if the vendor offers one.
Proceed with caution
Make a complete backup of your current systems before installing any new software and moving data to your new system, says Alan Tuback, product manager — practice management for LexisNexis Canada Inc. (publisher of The Lawyers Weekly.) “After installation, log into all other applications that you use to ensure that they function properly.” Plan for one or two months of overlap, when you run your existing systems and the PM system simultaneously.
Get help
“If you aren’t technically oriented, don’t spin your wheels. Find a good technology partner,” says Alykhan Jetha, CEO of Marketcircle Inc. “Give them the information they need to configure your system. Good partners can extract the information they need even if you don’t have it handy.”
Customize where necessary
Depending on your practice area, you’ll need certain PM system tools and not others, so remove tools you don’t need and customize the ones you do to fit your practice.
Every six months, review your PM system to make sure it still fits your evolving practice.
Communicate with the vendor
“As a vendor, the greatest accolade I can get is not somebody buying the product, but somebody actually using it,” says Frank Rivera, CEO of LOGICBit Corporation. “The only way a product can improve is if users talk to the vendor.”
(Author’s note: the above quote from LOGICBit CEO Frank Rivera was meant to protray LOGICBit as a vendor that wants to maintain relationships with its customers, to help customers better their practices. I regret any negative connotation the quote I chose may imply.)
For a PDF of this article, including a practice management system comparison chart, click practice_management_systems.